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"James J. Lee divided the world into good and bad. According to his writings on a Web site he created, people were bad, especially 'parasitic' babies.

Animals and bugs were good, Lee wrote. But war was bad, along with global warming, pollution and international trade.

As for civilization?

The environmental militant who was killed Wednesday at the end of a tense hostage standoff at Discovery Communications headquarters in downtown Silver Spring, termed it 'filth.'

Lee, 43, who once threw money to bystanders as a protest along a Silver Spring street and who believed that the world would be better off without people, was shot by police after the almost four-hour standoff. Police have not publicly named Lee, but several local and federal law enforcement sources identified him as the gunman."

The Washington Post story, which played up Lee's status as an "environmental militant," made no effort to ascertain whether his views were shared by any other environmentalist. The Post story left discussion of Lee's mental health status to the final paragraphs, and printed only Lee's self-evaluation that there was nothing wrong with his own mental health.